Wednesday, July 3, 2024

Garden walk........................

 Ah, summertime!  I know summer is really here when the Purple Coneflowers are 4' tall and the trees have filled out between me and my backyard neighbor.


This shot surprised me when I got it to the computer.  A shaft of light was on the Coneflower with deep shadows all around it.






I never got around to trimming the Annabelle Hydrangea in the garden by the back of the house.  We haven't had hard downpours this year (yet) so the bush is still mostly upright.  After a storm it will usually droop down and never recovers because the new stems with blooms are so fragile.  This is really 2 bushes and I need to dig out the back one this fall.

The Blackberry Lily is still blooming.  I have a couple of the common orange ditch lilies that I didn't dig out this spring so they are going to bloom soon and then I will dig them out.



This is round 2 for the Stella d'oro lily.  I know there were 2 plants originally so maybe this is the other plant.







One of my Rutgers tomato plants has a few good size tomatoes on it.  I have 3 of them and the one right next to this one only has 2 small tomatoes and the third plant has none so far.  This is why I overbuy on tomato plants.  There is no guarantee that every plant will have a big yield.

Today I need to make a backing  or two.  I already have batting cut to match several tops so the one seam and lots of pressing is what I need to do.

Tuesday, July 2, 2024

June 2024 Monthly Recap.....................



 
There were 3 finishes in June.  From left to right:  Baby quilt started in 1996 and I still love the fabrics in it.  It is 35" x 41".  Kaffe X quilt made with yarn dyed woven stripes and Kaffe prints is 58.5" x 78.5".  The top was made in 2022.  16 patch made with African fabrics and mottled batiks with an accent batik print as alternate squares scattered through the quilt.  It is 62.5" x 78.5".  The top was made in October last year.  The 2 large ones were quilted by my longarm friend Robin.

I only made one new quilt top, all Kaffe Fassett collective fabrics.  It is 40" x 60".

The good news is that in the first 6 months of the year I have made 20 quilt tops and finished 20 quilts.  The bad news, I still have 39 tops waiting to be quilted; no progress on that front.







This collage shows all of the quilt tops made in the first 6 months of this year.  Some of them have been finished this year.

This collage is the finished quilts in the first 6 months.  The collage maker decides the size of each quilt so they aren't to scale.

I have added a few things to my destash on the Wandaful Quilts blog.  A few are re-runs from previous weeks.  I'm slowly working my way through my re-organizing of my stash.

Monday, July 1, 2024

#3 finish for June 2024


It was a beautiful day yesterday with 73 degrees and a 50 dewpoint.  There was even a nice breeze.  Even thought the grass hasn't totally recovered from the dry spell, I mowed it because my neighbors had mowed theirs. 

 

I spent the rest of the day cutting the binding, sewing it on, and hand stitching to finish.  This is the one that was started in 1996.  I pulled it out several times thinking I would finish it but it didn't happen until this year.  This post explains the day I started it.  The method of designing it was in Baker's Dozen Doubled by Mary Ellen Hopkins.


The backing fabric is one of my favorites that is in the quilt top.  I decided it should be the binding too.  It is small, 35" x 41" and after washing it will go in my stack of baby quilts to be gifted.

I'll do my monthly recap tomorrow and also will have some more fabrics in my de-stash sale.  I was too tired last night to write that blog post.